Somalis panic as cash flow dries up after U.S. remittance lifeline cut

February 19, 2015 7:59 AM

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NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Somali families are panicking and businesses are running short of funds two weeks after the last major U.S. bank stopped transferring money to the fragile Horn of Africa country, development groups said.

Somalia has no formal banking system due to decades of war, so Somalis living abroad use money transfer companies to send some $1.3 billion home each year - far more than the country receives in aid, Oxfam and Adeso said in a report on Thursday.